Decommissioning Infor Lawson ERP? Here’s How to Prepare

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are one of the most critical IT investments for organizations. Between 2023 and 2024, 1.4M businesses were projected to spend a whopping $183B on ERP systems. Implementing a new cloud-based ERP system and retiring legacy systems like Infor Lawson is one of the most significant challenges our clients face—and research backs it up. In fact, a global survey of CXOs found the main barriers to migrating ERP legacy systems to the cloud included concerns around security (44%), disruption to operations (37%), and reliability (33%).

The ERP decommissioning process requires the right strategy and healthcare expertise to navigate the many data complexities, integration dependencies, and nuances in each system. Processes such as integrated scheduled jobs or interfaces running behind the scenes are often overlooked until organizations embark on a new project. We also find that our customers often have competing priorities and are spread thin—making the process that much more difficult.

Despite the challenges, however, the process also presents an opportunity to modernize IT infrastructure, mitigate compliance and cybersecurity risks, drive a financial ROI, and future-proof operations. Getting a thorough understanding of the ERP decommissioning process and knowing what to look for in a vendor is critical to keep the project on time and on budget.

What Is the ERP Decommissioning Process?

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in healthcare house complex datasets across several areas of an organization, including HR, payroll, and financial, as well as patient-adjacent workflows. Decommissioning, or shutting down the ERP system, is the process by which hospitals and health systems move from an antiquated legacy system to a new system to modernize their IT operations and enable digital transformation. ERP system decommissioning allows healthcare organizations to eliminate unnecessary licensing fees, reduce IT infrastructure and the associated upgrade and support costs, and prevent risks associated with outdated or unpatched systems. As a result, moving away from outdated ERP systems delivers a positive financial and operational ROI. The ERP system decommissioning process involves data validation, data migration, and data archiving.

Infor Lawson, in particular, is a complex relational data model. The system’s data spans connected modules, including accounts payable, general ledger, purchase orders, human resources, payroll, and benefits. The keys are compound, history is effective‑dated, and entity relationships must be preserved.

Go further. Download our HIT Leader’s Guide to Data Archiving.

The Role of ERP Data Archiving for Effective Decommissioning

ERP data archiving, or the process of extracting, storing, and securing legacy ERP data after the system has been retired or replaced, is a critical step in decommissioning. Data archiving allows healthcare organizations to reduce complexity, risks, and costs, while also ensuring compliance. Here are several key benefits:

• Security: archiving allows organizations to move structured data into a centralized, compliant repository, ensuring the data is secure even after retiring the legacy ERP system.
• Compliance: the right data is preserved for the right amount of time to ensure compliance with regulatory guidelines, including IRS, HIPAA, and OSHA.
• Control: organizations eliminate IT burden, unnecessary software licensing fees, costs to maintain servers and storage, and time wasted on maintaining, accessing, or reconciling historical data. ERP data archiving allows healthcare IT leaders to move from a reactive approach to a proactive strategy, reduce security risks, and ensure an easier decommissioning process with greater control. ERP data archiving allows healthcare organizations to achieve an optimal ROI across financial, operational, and risk reduction.

Key Steps for ERP System Decommissioning

Develop an ERP Decommissioning Strategy

A well-planned strategy can help organizations easily move from data archiving to fully retiring the ERP system, improve security, and ward off unnecessary costs. Organizations must work with their vendors to identify the data that needs to be validated, archived, migrated, or purged, and ensure the data is secure and accessible. End users must still be able to perform reporting, audits, and retrieval, and replacement access must be verified.

Inventory the ERP System

Once you have a strategy in place, the next step is to conduct an internal inventory of the ERP system. Identify the types of data, such as HR and payroll, that are housed in each system, the end users who access it, and the purpose of the data. This foundational step is important to inform critical decisions throughout the decommissioning process. Working with a vendor that understands healthcare-specific data categories and retention and compliance requirements can mitigate risks and prevent costly mistakes.

Define What to Convert vs. Archive

Migrating all existing ERP data can complicate and bog down the new system, introduce risk, and drive costs, so it’s important to determine which data needs to be converted to the new system and which data needs to be archived. This process requires collaboration from stakeholders across all areas of the organization. System usage patterns, reporting needs, legal hold status, and state-specific retention laws are among the many factors to consider when categorizing the data.

Archive ERP Data Securely

To ensure compliance, healthcare organizations should develop an audit-ready archival strategy. Once the ERP system has been retired, every archived dataset must be accessible for audits, reporting, and compliance inquiries. Archival timelines must also comply with retention requirements.

Validate Access and Reporting Requirements

Once the data has been archived, leaders must ensure that the data is easy to retrieve. Validation testing ensures that converted and archived data sets can be accessed across departments and that users can generate required reports, quickly respond to audit inquiries, and retrieve records without IT support. Platforms like DataArk provide HITRUST‑certified, searchable environments that allow authorized users to retrieve legacy archived ERP data. In addition to validating legacy data, organizations must confirm that every critical use case across HR, finance, compliance, and legal is fully supported in the new environment or archive.

Retire Legacy ERP Systems

When the data has been migrated, archived, and validated, the ERP system can be retired. By following the steps outlined here, deploying the right technology, and working with a vendor that has deep domain expertise and experience working with Infor Lawson and other ERP systems, organizations can ensure a smooth process that mitigates risks, reduces costs, and delivers an optimal ROI.

Get Expert Support for Infor Lawson Decommissioning

If you’re planning to decommission your Infor Lawson or another ERP system or are in the midst of a project, the process is complex, highly nuanced, and requires the right partner to help you navigate it.

MediQuant has more than 25 years of experience managing all kinds of healthcare data systems, including ERP transitions and data archiving, and has specific expertise with Infor Lawson. Through healthcare data archiving solutions and our personalized approach, our team works closely with our clients to identify their unique needs, customize the strategy, and collaborate every step of the way. To learn more, schedule your free discovery call today.